Top 22 Growing Shopify Stores to Inspire You this 2021

Now's the time to get inspired. Ecommerce has replaced physical channels in just 3 months. And it shows no signs of slowing down in 2021. According to a report by Mckinsey, we hit 10 years of eCommerce growth in just 3 months in 2020.

Today, we take a jolt of inspiration from these 22 growing Shopify stores who are absolutely killing it this year. Let's take a deep dive into their secret sauce of success.

So how can you stand out from the crowd and maximize your store's revenue potential this year? We're as excited as you are.

We'll be breaking down how they did it, what we love about it, and actionable tips you can take advantage of immediately to start maximizing your store's revenue potential in 2021.

#1 AllBirds

Let's begin with one of the greatest Shopify success stories of all time. From a simple Kickstarter campaign to a $1 billion company, Allbirds started with an altruistic mission.

They wanted to prove that people don't have to choose between comfort and well-designed footwear and sustainable options. Staying true to their roots, the company's brand and mission have little changed since then—and their customers love them for it.

Their subtle yet flawless execution of best eCommerce marketing practices includes:

1. Showing off their Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

This is what what sets your store apart from the competition, for Allbirds it's comfortable well-designed treads that won't hurt the environment.

2. Drilling down the User Benefit

Visitors are reminded frequently that their shoes are eco-conscious. From the "Running Shoes Made From Trees" above the fold, and an emphasis on how they use "Renewable Materials" on each page

3. Showcasing their User-Generated Content (UGC)

From their online store, you can see how Allbirds have been able to sustain their success.

With names like The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and Time, social proof like these holds sway over first-time shoppers. And gives them more reason to trust the brand.

#2 Biolite

Another example of how social proof plays a huge role in shopper's trust in a new brand. With leading science and technology household names like National Geographic and Popular Science talking about them, it's easy for us to think— hey, we need a thermoelectric thing too.

BioLite focuses on groundbreaking thermoelectric products that allow campers and Bear Grylls aficionados to use fire for heating and cooking. The cool part here is that you can also use it to charge your smartphones and other devices.

From what we know, BioLite uses email marketing with Klaviyo as one of the key ingredients of their sustained eCommerce success. They frequently deliver nurturing content and automate exchanges such as cart recovery for abandoned carts.

In short, they talk to their customers frequently. And they leverage the actionable insights from the analytics features to stay relevant to them.

What you can learn from them:

• They engage with their customers— frequently
• They build on their stats to improve and replicate their success
• They get to know what their audience wants — and deliver

Want increased sales for your stores and increased satisfaction for your shoppers? If done right, SMS marketing could be the power channel for eCommerce businesses this 2021— here's how to from invasive to personal.

#3 Bulletproof

Bulletproof's name is as unshakable as their brand story and Shopify plugin stack.

Founder Dave Asprey was inspired when he was visiting Tibet and stumbled on the local drink of tea blended with yak butter. He now sells millions of cups of coffee per year.

While you don't have to trek to Tibet to reach a business epiphany, here's where you can learn and replicate your own bulletproof tech stack for your Shopify store:

1. Have a great way to collect customer reviews and showcase your UGC on your website. Bulletproof uses Yotpo.
2. Turn on product restock alerts to let customers know when an unavailable item they wanted is back in stock. It's a simple way to increase sales for your store in the background. They use Back In Stock.

Sending relevant content also means notifications that your customers would want to receive.

#4 NerdWax

You'd want to sit up for this one because NerdWax rejected two offers from Shark Tank. Keeping it organic with all-natural beeswax to keep people's glasses in place, they've made over a million dollars in sales to date.

They too heavily favor the use of UGC. And since they've improved the quality of lives of the optically challenged, they'd rather you hear it from their customers themselves.

What we love about how the UGC on their website is displayed is:

• It's the first thing you see after the above the fold call-to-action (CTA)
• They don't just rely on the big names, they use real testimonials and real photos of their customers with their products
• They've got everything! From star ratings to real testimonials to photos of their customers. It immediately sends a powerful message to first-time shoppers.

#5 Pip Snacks

A Shark Tank success story, Pipsnacks sells healthy popcorn snacks. They secured an initial investment of $200k back in 2013 and made $800k in revenue the following year.

Just like their brand persona, sometimes it's the small things that really make an impact.

Here's why this section is so helpful to customers:

1. At a glance, you can clearly see what the product options are. Great if you have a variety of products and combinations to show off your inventory
2. Descriptive product titles and write-up
3. Value bundles are a great way to help your customer find the best deal and increase the average order value (AOV) for your store
4. Shows off customer ratings to help your customers move past their choice paralysis
5. Makes their checkout easier

#6 Beardbrand

Beardbrand's founder Eric Bandholz started this online business for men's beard care and made $120k in monthly sales in its first year.

Their email list quickly grew to over 7 thousand subscribers. What this tells you is that this company emphasizes the power of content. And their content really does stand out.

Foregoing the usual photo website banner, visitors are immediately invited to take a quiz to help you find the right path of the perfect fragrance for your skin, beard, and hair.

Not interested in a quiz? A quick scroll below the fold brings you to a short but instructive video on how to use their products. Showcasing the "Top Articles" also shortens the customer's journey to relevant blog titles and content.

Takeaway: Content is King. Find the best types of content that combine educational purposes, communicates user benefit and aims to help your customers.

#7 Skinny Me Tea

Proud from Australia, this company sells all-natural detox teas to help people achieve their health and wellness goals. They hit $600k in monthly revenue after just 9-months of opening their Shopify store.

Their banner right below their CTA sends a powerful message. Here's what we love about it:

1. It conveys ease of use. "The Ultimate 2-Step Tea detox program" will get you where you want to be in just 2 easy steps.
2. Eases the most common purchasing anxieties: “free shipping” and “worldwide shipping"
3. Their brand personality shines through: Made in Australia, All Natural Ingredients, Vegan, Cruelty-free

#8 Thinx

This Shopify store first raised $130k in 2014 from crowdfunding and it's grown up to 23 times since. It's a company by women for women that sells period-proof underwear.

If you're feeling skeptical, they've got that covered with their content. Here's what you can learn from them:

1. Take time to know your audience, know their wants and frustrations, then build a product that they would love
2. Humans want to connect with others on a similar path so impart brand personality into your content with your backstory, your process, and your journey
3. Dispel any skeptical thoughts through education but bite-sized content to educate on product usage, user benefit and ease of adoption

Check out their 3-video layout below that does just that.

It's no wonder they're making headway and revolutionizing the period products industry.

#9 WP Standard

After winning Shopify's Design award in 2013, they immediately gained a spotlight in the design- and quality-conscious tech crowd.

What we can learn from them is how effort into product design and a store's website to match the quality of your product plays a huge factor for the success of your Shopify store.

#10 Jane MotorCycles

As a fashion Shopify store, you need a lot to stand out. Jane Motorcycles does it right with bold photography. They also sell books, espresso, and oh—custom motorcycles.

With it's salt of the earth aesthetic, here's what you can learn from them:

1. Fuss-free payments and more payment options for your customers

This can help any business increase sales by offering interest-free installments. We know they offer Afterpay as an option, which is great if you have high price tag items such as motorcycles.

2. Their website layout is extremely practical and clean

They kept their homepage more visual. They use panels to showcase their actual products being worn and put to use in the great outdoors.

#11 Madsen Cycles

Their signature bucket bike is enough to make you do a double-take. What they do great is adapting to how their audience prefers to shop— through social media. This includes adopting the Instagram shopping trend that's taking over eCommerce.

Not only does it allow you to convert organic UGC content into effective organic ads, but it also lets your audience shop your Instagram feed from your Shopify store! They use Instafeed.

We're halfway through our list of top 22 most inspiring Shopify stores! Let's see what lessons the rest of the list can bring forth this 2021 below.

#12 ShineOn

ShineOn is an online marketplace that allows you to discover amazing personalized products from independent sellers.

What's cool about them is that they pair independent artists and sellers with working moms to design, produce and fulfill all these orders.  Each item in their store is uniquely designed, personalized, and fulfilled with care.

Listed as #31 on the top 500 most successful Shopify stores, ShineOn has generated $101k and hit a 30x boost in ROI in just 30-days.

Here's how they did it with human-powered text marketing.

#13 Kylie Cosmetics

This store needs no introduction but did you know Kylie Cosmetics was a Shopify store? We didn't either. Just after 4 years in the cosmetics business, they are one of the biggest stores in its category on Shopify with over $100 million in annual sales.

Another store that hails from the gram. Instagram allows Kylie fans and customers to shop directly from their Instagram page without needing to jump through the hurdle of a desktop or mobile store.

#14 Kith

The footwear/apparel brand KITH is currently at number 6 on the top 500 most successful Shopify stores.  According to Billboard, KITH is a company that "rules music's sneaker culture" with a track record of selling shoes to Jay-Z and Lauryn Hill.

Kith uses AI-powered smart suggestions to personalize their product recommendations for each customer. One cool feature though is having a product recommendation section in the shopping cart and checkout page.

This gives shoppers one last chance to grab their favourite products before they check out, and you boost your customer's order value.

#15 Miracle by Aloft

Miracle by Aloft is a store that specializes in sheets, towels, and pillowcases made with antibacterial silver. With its clean and baby-blue store design, it's easy to equate their products with the most soothing, hygienic sleep you'll ever experience.

Don't let this calming vibe fool you. They're not sleeping on anything. By bundling multiple products into one SKU, they've just unveiled a great strategy to boost your average order value.

#16 Tsuki Market

The brainchild of famous influencers Felix (Pewdiepie) and Marzia Kjellberg is an eye-catching collaborative effort. The couple who are influencers in their own right actively promotes the store on their respective Instagram and Youtube channels and models for their clothes exclusively.

What we love about it is how they've successfully translated their personas into its colour palette, visuals and love for Japanese culture. Each button comes with kanji translations.

#17 Triangl

This Australian swimwear brand is proud of their products and it shows. As you land on the homepage, there's little to no text just a slideshow of sun-drenched, summer photos of their bathing suits in action. The highlight here is how this draws attention to the quality and design of their products.

The TRIANGL founders, Erin Deering and Craig Ellis hit $45 million in annual sales after 3 years from borrowing $25,000 from friends to start it.

#18 Helm Boots

This is a 100% made in the USA brand of casual and work footwear founded in Austin, Texas. Since 2009, they've been committed to their trade of reinventing the classic yet versatile casual and work boots with a modern perspective and have been gaining traction ever since. Their clientele even includes the likes of Ben Affleck.

Check out founder, Joshua Bingaman's post in Forbes on why he decided to keep the production of his boots 100% all-American.

#19 MVMT

MVMT jumped from $1 million in sales to $60 million in just 4 years. Forbes has even dubbed them as the "world's fastest-growing watch brand".

MVMT has gone to great lengths to ensure that its customers are able to reach out and get their answers at their fingertips. By installing a chat widget on your Shopify store, first-time shoppers can easily reach out to you for any technical or fulfillment-related questions.

We know they use Gorgias to manage their customer support, helpdesk and even their email and social media messages from the same dashboard.

#20 Spigen

Spigen has sold millions of their phone cases since launching in 2007, and their products are so tough even the U.S Department of Defense approves of them.

They want to keep their customer relationship as strong as their phone cases so they've made sure to include loyalty programs for their shoppers. By offering point-rewards for an Instagram follow to redeem on discounts for future purchases, they encourage new visitors and are able to create more value out of their website traffic.

#21 Concrete Minerals

Concrete Minerals has offered high-end vegan, cruelty-free cosmetics with a unique perspective since 2009. They're focused on delivering highly pigmented cosmetics with less ingredients, more pigment—no parabens or preservatives and they're 100% gluten-free.

The footer of your website is often prime real-estate to ease the most common qualms of first-time buyers at your store. Here's what you can take away from this one:

1. Yes, they provide free shipping worldwide
2. They support all kinds of payment methods, including Afterpay for interest-free installments
3. Their Brand story
4. Their social media badges
5. Important Most Asked Questions: FAQs, Shipping, Returns & Exchanges

#22 The Great Cookie

With eCommerce acceleration being the theme of 2020, it's apt to end this list with The Great Cookie. This store has seven brick-and-mortar stores before launching an eCommerce store. The Great Cookie has been around since 1979, but there's nothing dated about them here. They have a formidable online presence.

Being able to adapt to the times is a crucial aspect of sustaining and growing a successful eCommerce store. The Great Cookie here shows how important it is to let their site visitors know crucial updates such as possible shipping delays due to COVID-19 with the help of a hello bar or customizable banner on the top of their website.

Your Store's Secret to Shopify Success

What you can glean from each inspiring Shopify store is how they found their own unique path to success.

We can predict that in 2021, here are the main takeaways that will help you carve your own path to success:

1. Leverage and showcase your user generated content: Product reviews, customer ratings, product usage testimonials and PR mentions
2. Identifying your tech stack that works for you can do wonders to help you
3. Get to know your customers by engaging with them frequently and gain conversational intelligence

Are you feeling inspired yet? Check out the latest Shopify's store launch checklist on how to set up your Shopify store. Whether you're just starting out or a veteran— you might learn something new!